UNITED STATES: US Congress Discusses Artificial Intelligence, Robots, and Basic Income

UNITED STATES: US Congress Discusses Artificial Intelligence, Robots, and Basic Income

UNITED STATES: U.S. Congress Discusses Artificial Intelligence, Robots, and Basic IncomeCo-written by Jenna van Draanen and Dave Clegg At the end of May 2016, the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress and Senate held a two-hour hearing entitled “The Transformative Impact of Robots and Automation,” which featured several expert speakers: Andrew McAfee, MIT research scientist, and co-author of The Second Machine Age; Adam Keiper editor of the New Atlantis and Fellow of the Washington based Ethics and Public Policy Center; and Dr. Harry Holzer economist and co-founder and director of Georgetown Center on Poverty, Inequality and Public Policy at Georgetown University. While there is not much discussion of basic income at the hearing (most of the talk is about the implications and impact of automation and robots on the…